Host and Play
by Arden Arwin Asha
Summary: Ruby buys four copies of Terraria with her birthday money. This could be awesome or stupid. Maybe both. Rated T for occasional swearing and adult jokes. I may accept well-written omakes, don't know. I HAD FORGOTTEN THIS BUT OH MY GOD GUYS THE RESPONSE TO THIS... I may just have to bring this back. Sheezibus Crimbles. Be. Hyped.
1. Chapter 1: In Your Face

**A/N: Welcome to Host and Play. As a first chapter, I'm okay with the quality, but I think it could be longer - too much of it is dialogue in my opinion. I'm going to update it with more description soon.**

 **Sorry, there were one or two typos due to me writing this on my phone. Ruby definitely sieved no time on her character.**

 **Anyway, enjoy. Review, favourite, follow, PM me if you want. I'm always up for advice, even just a friendly hi. I'll answer any questions you have in the next A/N.**

 **Seeya next time.**

Chapter 1: In Your Face

I was sat comfortably on my bunk, studying for an upcoming test in History, when a small bundle of nightmarishly distilled energy almost destroyed the door from the outside.

I didn't even look up as the deranged torrent of excited words spewed forth from the high-velocity maw of my partner's mouth.

Blake was looking almost as unsurprised as I was, Yang far more.

"Ruby, slow down." I interjected, the fountain of verbal inanity pausing.

"Okay okay okay okay. Weiss?"

"Yes?" I asked.

"You know the money you gave me for my birthday?"

Oh, shiiiit.

"Ruby, what have you done with it?"

Please, don't say she lost it.

"I spent it."

What.

"Eighty lien."

"Yeah."

"Where are the cookies?"

I felt the solid impact of a box of chocolate-infused treats ripple through the mattress.

"And the strawberries?"

I felt the solid impact of a box of sugary fruits ripple through the mattress.

Finally looking anywhere other than the textbook on my lap, I almost fell over as I saw the boxes. Two of them. Two transparent tupperware boxes.

Eighty lien.

"Eighty lien."

"But that's not all." Ruby was grinning insanely.

Oh for Dust's sake.

Yang, though, was clearly intrigued.

"What else did you buy?"

She raised her laptop into the air. On the screen there was a page open, titled " Vapour gift list".

She squinted across the room.

"Did you buy four copies of the save videogame?"

I began to shake. "Ruby Rose, explain yourself."

There was a loud squeak. "The game has multiplayer."

This time it was Blake to speak up. "So you think it would be a good idea to play together?"

"Uhuh."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why is this in any way a good idea?"

"Because... it's a team-building exercise?"

Like hell that's why she bought the game.

"So you can just transfer the game to us over the Dustnet?"

"...yeah." She seemed honestly surprised she was still able to stand. My trademark wrath had not been incurred.

"Fine, I'll go get my Dusttop. What do I need to do?"

About a quarter of an hour later, Ruby had set both me and Blake up with Vapour accounts (Yang obviously already having one). From what I could tell, it was a service devoted to supplying videogames over the Dustnet, including the gift service Ruby was now using to provide me with the game. Ne and Blake had both told her our usernames, and she had then had to "friend" us.

"Okay, done. You should all have it now."

I found a tab layout at the top of the window, and went into Library. Sure enough, there was now one entry in the list.

"Terraria?" Blake echoed

"Yeah. It's a game about surviving in the wild and slowly becoming more powerful, defeating monsters, stuff like that."

I sighed, not altogether optimistically. "Let's just get it over with."

I pressed the Play button under the logo on my screen. A small window came up, and a second later the screen went dark. Then, in big green letters, the words "RE-LOGIC" faded in to the screen. Around it, I had tone to spot a few pixelated animals and trees, as well as some strange... things.

Before I had tine to dwell on it, a menu cropped up. In the background, there were trees and mountains, and the Sun and Moon could be seen rising and setting in quick succession.

Ruby piped up again. "Okay, first we need to make characters. We can do that in single-player. Then I'll make the world and you can join the game."

Somewhat bewildered, I just pressed "Single Player", to be greeted by an empty box titled " Select character". At the bottom were two buttons, labeled "Back" and "New", and I immediately went to press the second of these.

I found a menu full of options, topped by a representation of a walking man.

Character creation.

I immediately pressed the button saying " Male" and changed it to "Female". Yang laughed at the sound of a sudden "oof!" and started switching her own character's gender repeatedly.

"Erk!"

"Oof!"

"Erk!"

"Oof!"

"Erk!"

I have her a pointed stare. "Can you please shut up? I'm trying to make a character here!"

She just grinned.

"Oof!"

"YANG!" I shouted.

As for my own character, I tried to make a fair representation of my real self. Eventually, I became happy with the appearance in front of me, and noticed a small label reading "softcore" at the bottom.

I asked Ruby, to be told just to leave it alone. She proceeded to grin. "Okay guys, I'm setting up a server. Already made the world."

Oh dear Dust, how little time had she spent on her character?

Never mind. I clicked "done" and entered my name into the box that cropped up. It then returned me to the list of characters, now with just one entry, Weiss Schnee. I saw a button to favourite the character, and pressed it instantly, but refrained from pressing Play just yet.

"Okay, ~and done." Ruby.

With this, I saw a small notification in the corner, reading "Cookies735 had invited you to play Terraria." I moved the cursor to it and clicked. Immediately I was presented with my list of characters again, and I pressed the Play button on Weiss Schnee.

A loading screen. I waited.

Then I was presented with the game. Blake, Ruby and Yang were already there, each having tried to make their character mirror themselves as much as possible.

The first thing I noticed was that the game was two-dimensional, just height and width. Interesting, but I wasn't going to complain. I could see trees, grass, the lower slope of what I guessed to be a hill, and a bunny.

Ruby's avatar was jumping around. "Yeah, Team RWBY is ready to begin our quest for godhood!"

I groaned. "First, dearest leader, how do I move?"

The process of learning to control my on-screen self was not as arduous as I expected. Within two minutes, I was comfortably able to walk, jump, and poke things with a copper sword.

Having explained the fundamentals of the game, Ruby then turned to a different matter.

"Okay guys, we need to start work on a home base before night falls. There are monsters around at night."

Oh, wonderful. "Anything else?"

She paused for thought. "Well, there are apparently pots and chests sitting around on the surface with all kinds of useful loot... maybe some of us should go searching for them.

"That sounds like a good idea." Said Blake. "How good is what we have at the moment?"

I pressed ESC, finding only an empty inventory but for the three tools at the top. A "pointy" copper shortsword (for... poking), a "shoddy" copper pick (I guessed I could use that to mine), and a "godly" copper axe (obviously for cutting trees).

Ruby replied. "From what I can tell... useless."

I facepalmed. "Yeah, okay. How about Blake and Yang go exploring, while you and I work on building?"

Ruby perked up. "Great, I can cut down trees, you can build a house!"

I smiled. Time to prove my creativity.

Ruby explained to me how to use the pick properly, and I proceeded to make a large flat area, picking up the dirt blocks as I went. Blake and Yang wandered off to the right (east?).

It was after Ruby came back with a small pile of wood and I began to build a floor on the ground that I saw... what in Dust's name was that?!

"Ruby..."

Her avatar walked over to me. "That's a slime."

I squeaked a little when the lump of pixelly green goo hopped towards me, and landed on a defenceless bunny.

The effect was instantaneous. The bunny exploded into bits of fur and blood. I squeaked again.

"What the hell do I do?!"

"Use the shortsword. Kill it."

With a great deal of trepidation, I moved towards it, and prodded it with the sword.

It bounced back, and I could tell from the splattering noise and health bar that I had injured it.

I poked it once more. It was nearly dead, and I was almost confident until it jumped and landed on my face. In the corner, I saw the "health" value drop by eight, and one of the five hearts was cut in half as my character flew back.

With a yell, Ruby dashed forward, and I watched her kill it with her own sword.

"That was my kill!" I was indignant.

Yang laughed. "Me and Blake have already killed four of those."

I deflated a little, and went back to building.

Suddenly, Yang exclaimed. "Chest!"

I huffed. "You draw enough attention to it as it is, Yang."

Ruby. Death stare.

Blake looked at me. "No, we found one."

"What's in it?"

She concentrated briefly. "Spear. Some healing potions. Bit of rope. Torches. And, uh, a Recall potion."

Ruby looked up. "Great, anything else?"

"N-uh."

She looked concerned.

"Dunno what that is. Yes, there is something else."

"Can you describe it?"

"It's sorta like red grass and trees. Looks like something died there. There's just a lot of it."

Blake suddenly seemed to jump out of her skin. "Yang, there's a-!"

Yang stared, aghast. "Oh God! Kill it with fire! Burn Dust! Burn it! What the-"

She looked shocked as we all received one message.

"Yang Xiao Long's flailing about was finally stopped by Face Monster."

Well, death one to Yang.

I saw Blake suddenly appear on my screen in a flash of blue, the remains of what I could only guess was the recall potion disappearing. Yang flickered into existence a moment later, as she spluttered.

"Hey, I do NOT flail about!"

Blake replied with a cunning smile. "It was right up in your face. I'm not surprised."

Yang's look went from horrified, to betrayed, to incredulous. "Was that a pun?!"

I laughed. "Somehow I think so."

By the time I finished the rudimentary house, the sun was setting. I had to admit, it was more enjoyable than I expected.

The house had several rooms. Ruby had given me a few materials she had gathered and told me how to craft, so we had done basic furniture. I had placed walls in, and on a whim made some windows out of fences. I had to say, the design worked. There was so much to craft, too! I felt I was still only scratching the surface after furnishing an entire house. We had a workroom with a workbench, a furnace, and a chair, as well as a dining room with a table and two more chairs. I had discovered it was possible to make sloped blocks with a hammer, so I built in an attic as well.

Ruby had been very impressed by my design, and I had to say I was as well.

It was she who spoke first. "Guys, it's almost night time. Get inside."

I noticed, for the first time, that there was someone rise in the house. Just a man, standing there, in the workroom.

"Ruby, who's that?"

"Oh, didn't you see him earlier?"

I hadn't.

"He's the guide. He can give us advice on playing."

"... He's an AI?"

She tipped her head sideways. "Yeah, I guess so. He's an NPC."

I looked at her. "What's the N stand for?"

"Oh, NPC means Non-Player Character."

"Ohhh." I got it.

"Hey, I can make some wooden armour!"

I frowned. "Is that even useful?"

She shrugged. "Better than nothing."

Within seconds, I saw brownish clothes materialise onto Ruby's character. She then threw an identical set to Yang, who put it all on except for the helmet.

"I'm not covering my hair."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Fine, just give it to Blake or something."

Yang did so.

My observations were interrupted by a moaning noise. A shambling green version of a human was wandering into the light our house emitted.

"That's a zombie," said Ruby, "it can't get in. Don't worry."

I meh-ed.

Suddenly Yang looked over at me. "Hey Weiss, wanna go mining?"

I meh-ed again. "Sure, why not?"

I dug a small alcove into the back wall of the hut, then began to dig downwards. Blake came and dropped a rope down into the small-but-expanding hole.

I continued to dig down, and the speed increased drastically when Yang joined in. Blake just kept placing down rope.

A minute had passed when Yang said something.

"Hey, Weiss, d'ya think that's a cave there?"

I looked for what she could be talking about. "Oh! Yeah, I suppose it could be."

We changed direction and began to dig sideways. Blake realised this, stopped dropping rope, and began to talk to Ruby about crafting.

When we broke through the wall of the cave, we were met with a variety of pots, as well as what I could only guess were veins of ore. I started digging away at one of these - lead, I discovered - while Yang went around smashing pots with a hammer she got from Dust-knows-where.

"Hey, there's a heart!" What?

I prepared to see a bleeding corpse, or anything. Instead, I saw she was taking about a heart-shaped lump of crystal. Immediately she went to smash it with a pick, then turned to me. "Any ideas what it does?"

I made an educated guess (not that I make any other type). "Heals you?"

She tried using it. There was a "ting" and a small green 20 flashed next to her. "Oh!"

"What?"

"It made my maximum health go up! I've got a hundred and twenty!"

I gave a "huh." "That's useful."

"Wonder how much I can get?"

"No idea."

It didn't take long for her lucky streak to continue, just as I was mining some silver ore.

"Hey, there's another chest!"

Before I could stop her, she had opened it. "It's got a boomerang! And since grenades!"

Keeping my distance, I murmured. "G-great."

After mining a bit of lead, she decided to return to the surface. I followed.

After making an anvil out of the lead, which I suspected to be used for making weapons, Yang looked at her partner. "Hey Blake, you want the boomerang?"

Said catgirl was definitely up for a boomerang. "Sure, thanks."

Yang replaced the wooden weapon with a lead broadsword, while Blake handed Ruby her spear. Not to be outdone, I spent the last few seconds of the night fashioning my own weapon. I discovered I had enough silver to make one of the available weapons. Weighing up the statistics attached to each, I eventually decided on a silver shortsword, not missing the similarity to my Myrtenaster. Most apt. Ruby, meanwhile, inadvertently proved that weapons didn't affect blocks by poking everything she could with her new toy.

As the virtual sun began to rise, she instead yawned. "Okay, that's our first night done."

I caught her drift. "Yeah, I've got studying to do. Maybe we can do more of this tomorrow."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, alright."

I pressed ESC, and left the game.


	2. Chapter 2: Bloody Marvellous

**A/N: Hello again! -Pyrrha Nikos, 2013**

 **Sorry, there's something I failed to make clear in the A/N for Chapter 1. This isn't going to be a very plotty fic, in general. I will try to keep speling and gramer up too skrach, so please tell me if I missed anything. But no, the most dramatic this will get will be moderately dramatic during the Moon Lord fight- what, you didn't know how far I wanted to write? Meeeh.**

 **I'm also defecting to Google Drive. Hopefully, this will mean a faster update rate. No, I'm not counting on it either.**

 **By the way, this chapter too (no pun intended) will also get a rewrite. Probably around the save time as chapter 4, but I'll be waiting till about Cha** **pter 5 to rewrite Chapter 1. This deserves more of my attention, to be honest. The last section is kinda rushed (all the shit, Watson. You're so elementary.)**

 **So, consider yourselves (plural!) warned.**

 **Reviews:**

 **KuletXCore: Thanks! (And as any physicist can tell you, the more potential, the further it can fall.)**

 **That said, here's Chapter 2.**

I sat down on my bunk. I, Weiss and Yang were already in the dorm. I picked up my scroll and messaged Blake, who had gone to the library to read... whatever it was Blake read. She liked sitting in the corner to read quite a lot of it.

-Blaaake, come to the dooorm-

*Fine. On my way.*

A minute later, she arrived, depositing a pile of books on the nearest surface. I stood up.

"Alright Team RWBY, I wanted to talk about Terraria. What did you guys think?"

Yang was the first to speak up. "Well, I got to blow evil monsters to bits, and I have grenades. So I love it."

I smiled at her support, looking to Blake next as she crossed the room to sit on her bunk. "It's a good way to spend time, as long as we don't neglect schoolwork."

That was... irritatingly true. But still, she found it agreeable. Two out of three so far.

"Weiss?"

The heiress' voice came from the bunk below. "Well, it's not problematic. It definitely helps with team building - no matter what the original intention - and for a computer game, it's..."

I waited.

"...enjoyable." Okay, everyone liked it.

"Well guys, we're eating in an hour, so I thought maybe we could... play some more afterwards?"

Weiss turned her head to the side. "Well, I don't think any of us have much homework, and I've already done my history test... I don't see why not. Although, I can only play for about half an hour, I still want to revise a little on today's work."

Blake provided a simple "uhuh" in response, Yang's fist pump confirming her support.

"Okay guys, it's done. Meet here at seven, and we'll play till 7:30."

When seven o'clock rolled around, I ran into the dorm, seizing up my Dusttop and almost decking Weiss.

Blake was already on her computer, Yang was lying down with hers on, next to her. I guessed Weiss was about to get hers.

I climbed up to my own bunk, turning on the Dusttop and opening Terraria.

Re-Logic... Multiplayer... Host and Play... Ruby Rose... Strawberry Cookie Land...

Invite friends... Done!

I found myself back at the house Weiss had made yesterday, with Team WBY materialising afterward.

"Alright guys, day two. What should we do?

Blake immediately began analysing the situation. "The house is a bit cramped. Could use some expansion."

I agreed. "Me and Weiss haven't explored the surface much, so could you and Yang with on the house?"

Yang groaned. "But, sis~"

Blake shushed her. "It's only fair, Yang."

She looked dejected, but nonetheless I left the house with a "C'mon Weiss, let's go."

Weiss and I left the house and walked west. The house was built at the foot of a hill, so we climbed over that, but I paused at the top.

"Weiss, what's this?" She looked to where I was standing, before automatically replying.

"How should I know? Just a strange plant."

I immediately took out my pick and tried cutting it out of the ground. I was surprised when it did work.

"Weiss, clearly you did know."

I could feel the glare she gave the underside of my mattress. "It's called a Strange Plant, isn't it?"

"Yyyup."

We went down the other side of the hill in silence, before Weiss cooed. I immediately looked for a puppy, but only saw snow- oh.

"It's beautiful!" Oh no. Remnant to Weiss, I'm losing you.

She immediately ran into the snow biome, with me following behind.

"Look, there's a sinkhole." She started down it, heedless of my complaint:

"Weiss, it's probably cold down there."

"It's not real, it's only your character that's there."

"But Weiiiiiss, my character IS me."

"Stop being a baby. Cone on."

Reluctantly, I began hoping from left to ledge as I dropped into the pit. I luckily had a few torches, so I placed them down as we went.

"Hey, look!" It was Yang.

In the corner of the screen, I saw a small message, reading "Batnoam the Dye Trader has arrived!"

Blake chucked. "Why do you think he's here?"

I shrugged. "No idea. Don't really care."

We continued to go down into the hole.

Then, I saw something.

"Weiss, there's a fluffball. It's walking down there." I was taking about a drop where the tunnel doubled back on itself.

"Hmm. Maybe it's friendly. Try going down there."

"Okay." I jumped. "It's coming towards me... h-hello fri-WEISS!"

I hopelessly poked at the fluffball that had just tried to kill me, before running into a wall as it charged again. My brain was screaming at me: NOT READY FOR THIS.

I realised I had a few dirt blocks in my hotbar. Thinking at the speed of my Semblance, I placed seven down so that I was completely blocked of from it. Weiss simply wandered past, the thing not even seeing her.

"Weiss, come back!"

She didn't. However, a moment or two later, the thing left, and I saw it fall down a crevice in the snow. At the save time, Weiss yelled excitedly.

"Ruby, I found a cabin!"

I jumped, smashing through the wall of my temporary shelter with my pick and running forwards.

Then, without warning, my character exploded into chunks. Wait, what?!

I yelped. "What the hell just happened?"

Yang laughed. "According to this, you were torn in half by a poison dart."

Weiss, silent until now, spoke with an audible frown. "That doesn't seem physically possible."

I growled. "Tell that to my body."

"Which part?"

Suddenly, Weiss squealed in delight. "There's a chest in the cabin! And there's an Ice Blade in it! And it FIRES A BOLT OF ICE!"

Weiss Schnee was fangirling. I took a moment to think on that.

I respawned, walking the short distance to the house, finding two new things: a cellar, and someone wearing a weird cloak and turban.

"Who's she?"

Weiss groaned. "It's probably the Dye Trader. And..."

Blake finished her sentence. "Batnoam is a man's name. It's a he."

I hadn't expected that, but said nothing. Instead, I walked over to said he, and right-clicked to talk.

"Wait, there's a button for strange plants... maybe that's why he's here." I pressed the button, and got some Shadow Dye for it. Trying again, I got nothing, and figured out that I had handed in the Strange Plant.

"Hey Blake, I got done Shadow Dye here. You wannit?"

She rolled her eyes. "Sure."

I threw the the bottles over, and she picked them up.

"Weiss, I'm coming back. Can you go back to the surface?"

"Fine."

I cleared the hill in ten seconds flat, finding her already at the top of the cave. "Let's go."

We ran across the snow biome quickly, while Blake and Yang finished the house. (made obvious by Yang's "It's awesome!")

Soon, we found another cave. But, this one was made of red stone, and went sideways into a hill of snow.

Weiss wandered up to the entrance, calling me after her.

"But Weiiiiiss..."

"Oh grow up. You're not really afraid of a funny-coloured cave, are you? I thought you loved red."

"Yeah, but that's... fine."

I whimpered, following her into the cave, holding the torches. As we went deeper, we passed a number of glowing lumps in the floor. I really didn't like this.

Swinging an axe, I smashed a well-camouflaged pot, and picked up some Recall Potions.

"Weiss, I found some-"

Whoosh.

"-Recall Potions..."

She exhaled, annoyed. "Ruby, some backup would have been nice..."

I poked my forefingers together. "Sorry."

Nevertheless, she kept going.

"Oh, I found some bombs. Yay. Aaand, there's a big red spider."

I grimaced. Spiders.

"Can you kill it?"

She waited a moment. "Just did."

I stopped grimacing, walking back into the house.

She clearly kept going, remarking a few times the sudden appearance of another spider, before:

"Wait, there are hearts in the walls down here."

"What, like the one I found?" Asked Yang.

"No, they're glowing. I can't mine through this stone to get to them."

I had a flash of inspiration. "Why don't you try using some bombs?"

I heard her breathe in to refuse, pause, hold the breath, and release it with, "Actually, that's not a bad idea."

I waited a moment, hearing a few explosions from Weiss' computer.

Two really creepy messages appeared in the chat, while Weiss exclaimed. "I got a spear and an accessory!

"You might want to stop... look at those messages."

She saw them, then inhaled. "Yeah, okay."

A moment later, I heard a string of quiet swear words from Weiss, succeeded by a death message, something about a Blood Crawler.

I walked out to the spawn point, meeting Weiss when she appeared.

"Can I see the spear?"

She grumbled. "Why are you so obsessed with weapons?" She threw me the spear, and I almost exploded with excitement.

"OhmygoditlooksjustlikeCrescentRosepleasepleasepleasecanIk-"

"If you shut up, yes."

I was quiet for a second, before I breathed in a really high-pitched voice, "Thaaaank youuuuuu..."

I ran back to the house, Yang and Blake looking on with barely-contained laughter as I jumped around, poking anything and everything I could.

"So... awesome..."

Weiss cut in. "Hey Ruby, why don't you sell the old spear to the Dye Trader?"

I shrugged. "Sure." I cashed in the weapon without a second thought.

Yang looked down to the bunk below. "Hey, Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how the trees in that red place to the east were all weird and grey?"

"Uhuh?"

"What do you think happens if you cut them down?"

"...dunno. Why don't you go try?"

While she left, I turned to Blake.

"Wanna go caving?"

"Okay."

She and I climbed down the rope, and started digging.

Yang spoke. "I got there. The trees, uh... they drop Shadewood. Huh. Think you can make armour out of that?"

Blake gave her a Patented Blake Look. The sounds of chopping ensued.

A minute later, Yang returned home. Blake respawned shortly after.

"Well, I guess that confirms there are flying enemies in that place." Oh, yay. Flying nasties.

"Yeah, anyway. What can we make with this?" I giggled at my sister's characteristic not-caring.

Blake went over to the workbench. "Uh... shadewood armour, there you go. Based on these stats, it looks to be slightly better than what we've got at the moment.

There was a moment of silence, punctuated only by clicks from Blake's computer, before her character turned and started throwing armour at Yang, who quickly exchanged it with what she was already wearing. Then changed back.

"No way. That's ugly as hell."

Weiss groaned. "Yang, it's really a question of practicality. I hope you realise that."

"Nu-uh. Look, if you shut up, I'll give it to you."

The heiress merely rolled her eyes in response, donning the armour as Yang passed it to her.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something important to do."

Weiss looked Weiss-y. "What-"

"A QUEST IS AT HAND! THE FEARLESS ADVENTURER YANG XIAO LONG IS TASKED WITH LOCATING AND WEARING A SET OF HOLY, YELLOW ARMOUR! LET NONE STAND IN MY WAY!"

I think it was then that I started noticing pain in my ribs.

With Yang gone and Blake killing slimes, Weiss took the moment to speak.

"I really need to do some proper research into the game. There's got to be more to work on."

That made perfect sense. Nevertheless, I felt like continuing to play.

Blake looked sidelong at me. "Ruby?"

I smiled back. "Yes Blake?"

"I was thinking it might be a good idea to go exploring underground again."

"Okay! Let's do it!"

We dropped down the mineshaft.

It could only have been a minute or two before Blake suddenly jumped.

"Ruby! There's a cabin!"

I followed her jump with enthusiasm. "Anything in it?"

"Uh..."

Weiss interjected. "There's a chest."

"I..." Oooh. She was doing research.

Blake found the chest almost immediately. "Hermes boots? It... allows you to run super fast?"

Oh.

My.

GOD.

Breathe. Breathe Ruby.

"Blake..."

She smiled at me. "Yyyyes, Ruby?"

Don't lose control.

Don't lose control.

"Please, can I have the boots, I want to runinTerrariaLIKEMYSEMBLANCEINREALLIFEPLEASEBLAKEPLEEEEASEOHMYGODPLEASE!"

Blake smirked. "Sure"

Squeal. Squeal Time.

I outran Blake all the way back up to the surface. This was awesome! SO AWESOME! I could run almost add fast as in real life, and all I needed was a pair of boots! I was like red lightning!

Yang was back at the house just after, a victorious smile on her face.

"Guess who just found a BUNCH of Yellow Marigolds!"

Weiss just grinned. "Blake?"

Yang was fuming now. "No, I d-oh. Wait, what?"

"What is it?"

"That."

Oh.

That's not good.

"Weiss?"

"Huh?"

"What's a Blood Moon?"


	3. Chapter 3: It's the Moon

**A/N: I'm back. Sorry to keep y'all waiting.**

 **Anyway, I have some good news, some bad news, and some weird news. The weird news is that the good news is the bad news. The bad news is that I'm probably about to start on** _ **three**_ **new projects, two on here, one over on FictionPress. Both the ones on here are also RWBY. The one on FP is some Sci-Fi. So, HaP may slow down a little, especially considering I've got upcoming exams. However, I still intend on getting to the Moon Lord.**

 **Also, I must say this: I warn/guarantee (pick one) that there is to be no shipping in this fic - there is one moment in this chapter where Yang starts being Yang, and another where I make a Weiss Reacts-style "tease", but it's a joke. And the first is a reason for an epic duel. Excuses.**

 **Also, RWBY Volume 3 has begun (Nora ate her bowl, I swear), and Grimm Eclipse has passed Greenlight. The manga is out in a month. Hype and fangirling are the rule of the day, and I love it.**

 **Review Replies:**

 **TehUnoman: Thanks. I'm sure Ruby would love to know that.**

 **New Universe Returns: Expectations! Oh God! *runs***

 **BloodTrinity: Interesting. I always found my character interaction too limited, but I guess my original characters can be a little bland. Thanks for the praise!**

 **DarkElucidator: 1. Probably more than Weiss would admit. 2. Five chapters is a long time between a spawn message and the bossfight. Also, cool name. Is that a reference by any chance?**

Chapter 3: It's the Moon that's Red Like Roses

"Oh God no, Weiss, what's going on?" My heart was thundering, sure that very bad things could happen to it virtually. Like Zombies.

Words tumbled out of Weiss' mouth in perfect order, yet entered my brain in entirely the wrong one. Words like Blood Zombie and Drippler. Words you run far away from.

Blake, meanwhile, was already at the door of the house. There was a small horde of red things charging towards her, getting faster and faster. She stood, blocking the entrance, boomerang ready and waiting for the advancing hordes.

Yang shot out of the door, straight into the oncoming horde.

"Sis!"

"Yang!" I'm not sure who shouted louder: me or Blake.

Said Faunus rushed out into the darkness too, and the boomerang and lead sword flashed as one, blood erupting in the melee.

I glanced at Weiss. "Hold the fort."

By the time she opened her mouth, I had dropped down the mineshaft, and her retort died flatly with my will to fight. All things considered, staying was more sensible, but the purely disgusting form of the Blood Zombies held me back.

Even as I reached the bottom, Blake's graphically descriptive death message was adorning the lower edge of the screen. Getting Dripplered had to _suck_.

Further I traveled, still wandering in the dark, until I noticed the torches sitting neatly in my inventory.

As I delved deeper, a new message appeared in the red text's place, and I almost clapped for joy. "YangXiaoLong has defeated the 50th Zombie!"

My sister's face was decorated with a cheesy grin, the sense of killing so many monsters clearly appealing to her.

"Awww yeaaa!"

Her grin intensified, before it was broken completely, her face falling faster than a brick.

"Awww noooo!"

Her own death message was now appended to the chat. It was shortly after that Weiss spoke up, presumably before my sister suicidally exited the house yet again.

"Yang, before you go back out, give me the banner."

"The what?"

The Ice Queen sighed a long, icy, queenly sigh. "The Zombie dropped a banner. Give it."

"Oooooh. Uhuh. Uh… why?"

"It provides players with a bonus against the enemy it is gained from. If I place it, we all get stronger against Zombies when nearby."

"Oh, cool. Here ya go."

As I delved deeper, I was soon tasked with a very important question, as I gazed upon the name tag for a weird lumpy red thing dancing around below me:

"Weiss, what's a Coachinnial Beetle?"

"Cochineal."

"I know, what else is it?"

"It's, uh..."

Typing. Clicking.

"A monster used to get Red Dye."

Red Dye? That would be great for armour, especially with it being my favourite colour.

I grinned maniacally, realising that perhaps I could actually become my real self in Terraria.

"Alllllright!"

I jumped straight for the beetle, the Rotted Fork slashing, theoretically carving the beetle up, practically doing nothing.

Ow. Stab. Oww. Not good. Not-

"RubyRose was brutally dissected by Cochineal Beetle."

That earned a small "eesh" even from Weiss. Eesh indeed.

A short respawn later, I was again falling, Weiss again lost for words.

"I'm getting that dye!"

Goal set, I plunged once more into the dark, mysterious world of the underground. I would have vengeance, and the sweet, red, awesome colouring would be mine. As would a few bruises... or perhaps death messages. I was not sure which, nor did I want to think about it.

"Bride!" Weiss.

"Yeah?" I replied, before my mouth could be sealed by my ever-vigilant hand. "Mmf... what?"

"It's a rare variant of a Zombie, I guess."

Squelchy, Zombie-killing noises ensued, punctuated by short cries of pain. Soon, the creature was no more, and Weiss gave a small "huh" of underwhelming surprise.

"It drops a wedding outfit."

A moment passed. Then Yang burst out laughing. "Weiss, you look fabulous!"

Weiss turned beet-red, as I leaned over to watch the show. "Sh-shut up."

"Oh my dear Weiss-y Weiss, how wonderful you look! Positively radiant, my darling!" Yang was now in full tease, and there was no stopping her now. Weiss, however, clearly did not know this, and went on clutching at straws.

"Stooooop..." Weiss was evidently losing hope already.

"I might just have to go and slay a Groom for you, so that you can be mine fo- oh my God, there's actually a Groom out there."

I could see, sidelong on Weiss' screen, the male counterpart.

" _YANG XIAO LONG, GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!_ "

"No WAY, Princess Bride. You shall be MINE."

I wasn't sure I was liking how Yang was acting. Her Weiss-senpai was clearly in agreement.

The hatted husband was killed soon after, and Yang returned triumphant, his top hat perched atop her virtual mane, somehow seeming very out of place.

She came to stand in front of Weiss.

Weiss faced Yang.

Yang faced Weiss.

"WeissSchnee has turned on PvP!"

Yang laughed a little, a sly grin gracing her face as another pun broke the surface of the ocean that was Yang's wordplay repository.

"When all this is over, _m'icequeen."_

"You're on, Xiaooh god _DAMMIT_!"

Weiss' cry of indignation was cut short by yours truly very suddenly crying "Heart!"

I tried, and failed, to make the short jump to the ledge on which the pink pickup lay. There were only one and a half hearts visible on the screen, the one being the giant gem my gaze transfixed.

 _Lucky Break. Ha._

With the help of a little digging and a little rope, I returned to the top, but on the other side, my ego nearly as wounded as my character.

"Why are there always chasms to jump over? It just draws out the events!"

Silently, I cursed whoever decided to generate so many inconvenient crevices into my world.

The heart obtained and used, I looked around for other useful stuff. Sadly, not much. So, without wasting time or breath, I slowly dropped further into the caverns, my exploration done. Music came and went, death messages blinked, and tunnels flew past, until I squeaked in delight.

"Thiz unvvuh beetn!" My voice rose, higher than high, higher than even Weiss' singing, until it fired out of human hearing range and into ultrasound, almost giving Blake a heart attack, Yang yelping, Weiss swearing in a very un-Weiss-like manner.

"RUBY!"

"Sorry!" I uttered, my pitch descending to a mere Weiss Five in frequency.

"...dammit. What is it?"

"There's another Coachinnial Beetle!"

"Cochineal." Blake's bow twitched as her eyes traveled to one of her library books, open beside her. I wasn't sure why.

"I'mma kill it!"

Weiss did what Weiss would do. "Ruby, I'm telling you this is a terrible-"

 _BOOM!_

Where did get a grenade?

The beetle was pulverised instantaneously, body exploding, shell shatteri- nope.

Nopidynopidynope.

Oh, fine, yes. Shell shattering into a thousand red fragments and ceasing to exist.

Already there, I pawed ineffectually at the dissolving remains of the one thing that mattered, broken, unable to defend myself when a stray Red Slime "impaled" my character. I did not survive.

Seconds later, Blake let out a small, mewling cheer.

"It's over!" True enough, when I respawned, it was dawn, the yellowy sun breaking the shadows, and the last remnants of the forces of darkness vanished shambling from sight.

A small notification pinged in the corner. "Urist the Demolitionist has arrived!"

Great, more explosions. The small, red-bearded NPC began to potter around outside the house.

Yang's suddenly cheerful grin was shattered like a mirror by Weiss' tone of voice.

"Yang. Roof. Now."

The fear evident, Yang barely managed "but it's only just past the honeymoon…", as puns forsook her and fear of the Snow Princess' wrath reigned.

 _Wait, what? She's scared?!_

She stood at one end of the roof as Weiss strode out to the other. I and Blake took the opportunity to hop on to the wooden blocks as well, preparing for the duel of a daytime.

Weiss snapped her fingers crisply.

"Blake, countdown."

Blake was quick to oblige.

"Three."

 _My sister versus my partner._

"Two."

 _Come on Weiss._

"One."

 _Come on Yang._

"Go!"

The air shimmered as the Weiss Blade sang, Weiss herself rushing, Yang pushed back, health vanishing faster than Torchwick was apprehended by the authorities.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

"WeissSchnee was slain by YangXiaoLong's grenade."

The same thumping sound that can be heard when a film trailer cuts to black was audible in Weiss' _stare_. Yang grinned again, oblivious to the frostburn gaze that threatened to annihilate her.

I laughed, nervously, more to alleviate tension than express amusement. Or terror. But the sound had anything but the desired reaction.

"OH, SO THIS IS FUNNY?" said Weiss, her ability for tone recognition crashing and burning as I became an adversary.

 _Not anymore, Weiss._

"It's. On."

Now volunteered as Weiss' punching bag, I could not back away. I would be pursued to the ends of the earth for vengeance, no matter if it wasn't very far at all. The second duel of the morning, and I was up, with no true choice.

Gulping, I stepped up. "Fffffffffine!"

I stood in place of my sister, Weiss already taking her position at the opposite side of the roof, fork and blade ready.

"Blakeeey!"

"Three."

 _Me versus my partner._

"Two."

 _Come on Weiss!_

"One."

 _Wait, no…_

"Go!"

Weiss immediately started to swing, blue crystals going wide as I jumped and dodged, trying to work out the best attack plan.

 _Ah, screw it._

I charged, the Rotted Fork slashing at air, Weiss leaping over me and firing a bolt of ice down toward me. It hit my avatar square in the skull, and I dashed out at her., struggling to land blows. She hopped about perfectly, just out of reach of the weapon. I shot straight past her, stabbing at her, wheeling and turning to face the storm of ice shards. Many I evaded, but one or two I could not avoid, and my next character death was quick, a couple of ice bolts sealing my fate just a little faster than pride should have allowed for.

"Hmph! That'll show you!"

 _Thanks, Weiss._

"Oh, time's up. We have stuff to do." I knew a little regret had crawled into my voice, and I let it stick. "Ready to stop?"

Yang gave a neutral "uhuh", Blake replied with a small "yip", and Weiss sighed.

As I quit the game, I took a moment to revel in that sigh. Weiss actually liked a videogame.

I gave my arm a small pinch.


End file.
